
Cheap Home Runs
Manny Randhawa of MLB.com did a very good story on this a few years ago. This category is more or less self-explanatory … balls that don’t normally go out, go out here. And nothing can change a game like a home run, rendering this a very important category.
Here’s a graph of just this part of the equation itself, which was simplified to a 1-5 scale.
Triples
Triples are super weird if you think about it. They only occur in parks that have different features. Coors Field has large gaps, San Francisco has triples alley, Fenway has that cutout in center field. There are some surprises once you see this list.
Dome
Domes are different. Sometimes a ball can hit the roof, like this recent play. In fact, that’s what convinced us it was time to do this story. Also the game can completely change if the roof is open or closed, which sometimes happens mid-game.
There are only seven parks in MLB with roofs and some are used way less than others.
Extreme Park Factors
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If the stadium is very offensively or defensively friendly, it got some added points here.
Miscellaneous Weirdness Factor
Wrigley Field has ivy that sometimes swallow balls, Arizona is so dry that they needed to humidify the ball, Oakland has so much foul territory that the bullpens are still on the field and a bunch of parks have small things like juts in their outfield walls. All of this stuff contributed to this category.
Gimmick Park Total (points in parentheses)
- (20) Chase Field
- (19) Coors Field
- (18) Minute Maid Park
- (17) Fenway Park
- (17) Tropicana Field
- (17) Marlins Park
- (16) Rogers Centre
- (15) Wrigley Field
- (14) Globe Life Park
- (13) Oakland Coliseum
- (12) Guaranteed Rate Field
- (12) Comerica Park
- (12) Oriole Park
- (12) Oracle Park
- (12) Miller Park
- (11) Yankee Stadium
- (11) Target Field
- (11) T-Mobile Park
- (11) Progressive Field
- (11) Kauffman Stadium
- (10) Great American Ballpark
- (10) PNC Park
- (10) SunTrust Park
- (10) PETCO Park
- (10) Citizens Bank Park
- (9) Citi Field
- (9) Dodger Stadium
- (9) Angel Stadium
- (7) Nationals Park
- (6) Busch Stadium